Speaking during an interview with a section of Kitui-based reporters, the youthful legislative leader said that there was effective working relationship between the two arms of government in place for service delivery in Kitui County.

"My work as Kitui Speaker is great with regard to the governor's office. I write letters to him and he responds. When he writes to me, I also answer. Things are okay".

But the Speaker admitted that there are cartels keen on driving a wedge between the two top county leaders. "Cartels want to start a nonexistent war between the County Executive and the Legislature. Both of us have no fights against each other.", he said assuring residents that the Legislature will oversight implementation of county projects awarded to contractors. "It is our constitutional duty to oversight the work of County Executive", he added.

The county assembly is undergoing a court case by a number of MCAs. The committees are not in place as expected. In their place, the Speaker said they will have ad-hoc committees as constitution of the Budget and other important committees await court process. This is as happens in the National Assembly. Of note is that the ad-hoc committees are not in place.

Governor Dr Malombe introduced Supplementary Budget II to the assembly. The 2024/2025 financial year budget seeks to allocate funds for development including KSh 332million from the donor community.

The Speaker who is also a lawyer promised residents that they will follow court rulings in their undertakings as they serve the people.

The slow uptake of PPPs, where for example it has been reported that the value of private investments in PPPs in Kenya dipped by 90.5 percent in the financial year ending June 2024, and the fact that the private investors injected only KSh. 4.3 billion into PPP projects, down from the Ksh. 45.3 billion injected in the financial year ending June 2023 shows that there is need to review and align the PPP process and regime in Kenya. 

In 2022, PPP projects drew KSh. 80.6 billion with some of the funding going to the completed 27.1 km Nairobi expressway project. In the current financial year, the National Treasury had projected to draw KSh. 50 billion into PPP projects and in the 2025/26 financial year, the government intends to initiate ten (10) mega projects valued at over 131.9 billion Kenya shillings through PPPs including one irrigation project, one water and sanitation project, three energy projects, two housing projects, and three health projects.

 There is need to develop strategies to make PPP projects succeed in Kenya, because public financing of projects faces many challenges, despite the demand for more goods and services from the public sector. Successful PPPs must protect and ensure that Kenyans get Value for Money (VfM) throughout project preparation, implementation and life of contract. The PPP process management from appraisal, preparation, award to completion, and step by step and progressive process or the “gateway” process is key for success. Lack of VfM means PPP projects will become a failure and hence deny citizens the goods and services that they need to enjoy a high quality of life in a clean and secure environment as envisaged under the Kenya Vision 2030 development blueprint. 

PPP project failures are because of defects in the identification, assessment and preparation (appraisal) of project, poor structuring, poor management of tender process (inadequate transaction management capacity), and poor contract management. 

In addition, the existence of high risks and limited incentives for private players can lead to PPP failure. The Asian Development Bank analyzed 6,273 PPP projects globally between 1991 to 2015 and found out that 259 were cancelled (worth $ 76.4 billion and 4.4% of committed $1.7 trillion PPP project), 67 were in distress and only 216 were completed. More than half of the cancelled projects were in Asia (54.5%), Latin America (40.8%) and Africa (2.9%) and of course the low failure rates of PPPs in Africa are because of the limited number of PPPs in the continent, which will change because more and more countries in Africa are embracing PPPs. 

PPP project failure can broadly fall into three groups – Economic, Politics and Execution aspects. Economic failure arises from skewed responsibilities, improper risk identification, quantification, assignment and incentivization for parties to perform the assigned tasks, inadequate public sector capacity and poorly drafted contracts. The public sector should prioritize PPP projects based on the needs and sound economic principles and not based on purely political reasons. 

PPP projects should yield positive net social returns. Politics can cause failure of PPP project as evidenced by the failure to understand the political and operating environment of projects; the electoral cycles and the legal and regulatory environments, including the official and non-official policies that underpin projects of every nature. 

The third cause of PPP project failure is execution, that touches on how PPP projects are executed and implemented over time. In order for Kenya to successfully leverage on PPPs, there is need for strong project preparation, preparation of adequate project feasibility studies to minimize deviations for socio-economic financial projections in terms of project outcomes. This depends on the human capital and expertise in the country on all aspects of PPPs – legal, procurement, financial and technical, environmental and social safeguards.

Additionally, there is a need for effective and adequate local financing and capital raising mechanisms, wherein local banks must take up this role to avoid foreign denominated loans and finance products that have a huge bearing on the cost of projects and hence the user fees of the final projects, hence a tendency to drive people away from uptake of PPPs. 

There is a need to structure and sustain reforms at the local capital markets to reduce a lot of foreign currency denominated transactions, which are subject to price and exchange rate fluctuations making projects costly and unattractive. Effective uptake of PPPs should be preceded by the development of clear project goals, objectives, including the motivations of the PPPs – whether a debt avoidance and reduction strategy or a mechanism of embracing innovation, technology and managerial prowess of the private sector.

Uptake of PPPs should be anchored on the existence and operationalization of adequate governance systems and support. This could include but not limited to setting up special courts; transparent and timely decision making; building the positive publicity of PPPs. effective management of the PPP process; effective cooperation between players; creating room for interested parties to suggest improvements, critique, and innovations for fast-tracking the PPP project development. 

The incident, which unfolded in Mavuria Ward, has shaken the community to its core and raised urgent questions about food safety at public events.

Confirming the incident, Embu County Chief Officer for Public Health, Henry Nthiga, said the victims had attended a social function on Saturday where food was served in plenty. He said after the event, several attendees packed leftover food to take home, but in a devastating turn, they ate the food the next day without reheating it.

“None of it was warmed.They ate the left overs the following day Sunday as it was.That is where the danger began,” Nthiga explained.

He said within hours of eating, the victims  including the teenager  began suffering severe diarrhea and other symptoms of acute food poisoning. But thinking it would pass, they delayed seeking medical help until yesterday (Monday) when they were taken to Kiritiri Level Three Hospital.

By the time the family sought medical attention, the 14-year-old’s condition had deteriorated rapidly. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Kiritiri Level Three Hospital. The six others are still hospitalized, though according to health officials, their condition is now stable.

Nthiga said health officials immediately descended on the affected home when they got the information disinfecting the area and launching a probe into the source of contamination. 

 “This is a wake-up call. Reheat your food. Boil your water. And above all, involve public health officers when planning events where food will be served. These are avoidable deaths.” Nthiga said.

However, added that  morning light rains  as well as afternoon and night showers and thunderstorms were  expected over a few places during the early days of the week long weather forecast ending May 19th.

The maximum temperature forecast for Kitui County is expected to range from 23°C to 33°C while the minimum temperature will oscillate between 15°C and 22°C.

Confirming the incident to MWINGI TIMES, Kyuso Deputy County Commissioner Reuben Kimosop said the two victims were siblings.

 Further, the DCC disclosed that six other children taken ill were receiving treatment at Ngomeni Health Centre which is in Kitui County. The epicentre of the outbreak of measles is Kavaani and Mitamisyi locations.

The administrator cautioned the Kavonokya sect to adhere to health regulations in order to fight the spread of measles in the area. He said those who will resist immunization will be arrested and taken to court 

"Even after their family members fell sick, they kept it secret ultimately resulting in deaths", regretted the Kyuso DCC.

Other local administrators are assisting the Kyuso DCC Mr Kimosop in curbing the measles outbreak through community mobilization. They include the ward administrator, village administrators, police and Ngomeni Assistant County Commissioner.